Monthly Archive: April 2011

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From waterbus to waterhogs…

Wednesday 27th April   Contracted to care for the Cheshire One during the remainder of the Easter break we drove her south on Tuesday, she our back seat driver. Wednesday dawned: time for trains, inter-city and underground, and a liaison at Camden Town tube station for a Girls and Grannies Day. Excitedly the two girls (ages 5 and 7), both bird-watcher daughters, and the two Grannies (ages unrecorded) made their way to Camden Lock, boarded a waterbus – and arrived...

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Messing about on a boat

Thursday 21st – Monday 25th April     Messing about on a boat gives an impression perhaps of those Three Men in a Boat, struggling to complete a camping boat trip on the Thames, or of punters poling their way past any number of Oxbridge colleges.  Well, camping no, poling yes – and a great deal of mess – and messing about.     We had arrived on the boat early on the Thursday afternoon of the Easter weekend. It was...

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Trains – and boats – and trains …

Thursday 14th April to Monday 18th April Cal Son and Techno Son-in-Law had conspired between them to ensure the Cleddau crew kept a vow made in spring 2000: to make a return visit to Berlin. They had provided some flight funds, a Lonely Planet guide book and a three hour DVD documentary presented by Matt Frei. Then had begun some persistent nagging: “When are you going to Berlin?”   In March the Captain picked up the guide book, disappeared from view...

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Back on our boat for a brew …

    Four carloads of boat stuff, three barge poles beside me, two trips to the rubbish dump … and one little Cleddau cruise on the Macclesfield Canal!     A sudden shout midway through  Friday evening from the Captain; he was seated, as is his wont, in a comfy chair in front of the computer in the study, watching the world – and watching the world go by.  “It’s finished, the boat, it’s finished, look,” he exclaimed, gesticulating at the computer...

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Distance, scenery – and some gongoozling

Sunday, 3rd April, 2011 My sisters have no need to crave hills and elevation: one drives to work alongside Cromarty Firth and gazes straight across to Ben Wyvis (3,433ft), one walks daily through her village, gazing up at the Brecon Beacons, Pen-y-Fan (2,906ft), and one, in clear conditions, can espy the Preseli Mountains (1,759ft summit )  – or cycle to the hilly Pembrokeshire Coast Path. But Boatwif, the Bedfordshire-based sister, has to utilise fuel and car-wheels to gain a truly...